When the EU and the International Monetary Fund (and Germany) spent €110 billion to dig Greece out of its deep fiscal hole six months ago it looked for a while as though Brussels’ shock-and-awe tactic had done the job.

On 27 August the Office for National Statistics published its first revision to the performance of Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of the year. The initial estimate of 1.1% growth had looked pretty good.

As predicted, the pound has strengthened over the last few weeks – it is now more than 10 percent higher than it was at the start of the year. Combined with low interest rates and the slower property market here in France, that means it now is a really good time to buy in France!